 City of Bishop Public Works employee Chance Johnson cleans a truck used to clean sewer pipes and ponds. Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed seizing gas tax revenue from cities and counties to balance the state’s budget. This tax money is used to pay the salaries of Public Works employees like Johnson. Photo by Mike Bodine By Mike Bodine
Register Staff
6-25-2009 Governor Arnold Schwar-zenegger has hatched yet another plan to try and balance the state budget, but this one is being called unconstitutional.
The proposal is to seize approximately $1 billion from cities and counties share of revenue from the Highway Users Tax Account, better known as gasoline tax, this year and next. On June 11, the state’s Joint Budget Conference Committee endorsed the proposal and this week lawmakers will be deciding which cuts to approve.
The majority of this revenue goes to pay Public Works personnel and cover some projects. But, if the governor’s proposal passes, 75 cents of every dollar of revenue will be diverted from keeping streets, sidewalks and bridges maintained, to mending the budget. For Bishop, this could mean an $80,000 cut to Public Works, this year and next.
In other parts of the state, the proposed cuts could put entire county road departments in jeopardy of closing. The San Jose Mercury News is reporting that Santa Clara County is in danger of losing up to 90 percent of its state funding for public works.
The League of California Cities has said the proposal is blatantly unconstitutional and has asked the assistance of legal counsel from cities and counties to help protect the funding.
Bishop City Council agreed to offer the services of the city’s attorney, Peter Tracy, to the cause.
The League of California Cities has said the proposal is blatantly unconstitutional and has asked the assistance of legal counsel from cities and counties to help protect the funding.
Bishop City Council agreed to offer the services of the city’s attorney, Peter Tracy, to the cause.
“We’re going to sic Peter Tracy on ’em,” City Administrator Rick Pucci said.
The request from the league to Bishop states that by using the services of the city attorney, “it does not commit the city to filing litigation.” The league continues by stating that if litigation is necessary in the future, it would behoove all interested parties, meaning cities and counties, to be a part of that suit, and so having a city attorney with knowledge of the suit would also be in the city’s best interest.
The league is basing its case on Prop 5 enacted in 1974 and 1998’s Prop 2, both approved by voters that put limitations on the power the legislature has to seize these funds.
Eva Spiegel, communications director for the league, said Wednesday that these prospective cuts are part of various “packages” the legislature will decide on during a “Budget Drill” this week in Sacramento.
Some of the other budget recommendations by the committee include increasing the tax on a pack of cigarettes from $0.87 to $1.50; providing full funding to the High Speed Rail Authority at $139 million; cutting deeply, but not eliminating, the CalWORKS and Healthy Families programs; reducing Medi-Cal funding by $323.2 million; and commuting the sentences of inmates with a plan to classify borderline felony or misdemeanor crimes as misdemeanors only.
These proposals demand a two-thirds majority vote by legislators to pass.
Spiegel added that one of the issues California needs to dealwith is bringing Wall Street and investors to bat for California.
“But how does the state expect to increase confidence with these proposals” that are unconstitutional? she asked.
When asked how legislators and the Budget Conference Committee could approve of something that was unconstitutional, Spiegel said to ask the committee.
The office of committee member Senator Bob Dutton (R-Rancho Cucamonga) said the league has a valid question concerning the legality of the proposal, and it has been drawn to the attention of several committee members.
“A lot of times, legislators make proposals that they think has legal standing, but it’s not always the case,” Larry Venus, Dutton’s public relations officer, said Wednesday. “This seems to be one of those issues.”
At a speech given in Fresno on June 18, Schwarzenegger said there are no more alternatives to the cuts.
“Our wallet is empty, our bank is closed and our credit is dried up. It’s that simple. We must make those cuts, because what is the alternative? What is the alternative? Well, the alternative is if we don’t act the state will just simply run out of money and go insolvent. That is the alternative and we don’t want that,” the governor said, “California’s day of reckoning is finally here.”
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